Zakai Zeigler came off a Jonas Aidoo screen and sent a nice bounce pass to Aidoo for an easy layup. He couldn’t get it to go.
It set the tone for what was largely a miserable night for Tennessee’s offense against South Carolina.
The Vols shot 36% from the field and 24% from three-point range. They scored a season-low 59 points and failed to get in any rhythm on the offensive end.
Tennessee’s biggest issue on the night was its inability to finish at the basket. That started on the opening possession of the game and carried on the rest of the way. The Vols, who entered the night with the SEC’s best two-point offense, made just eight-of-21 shots at the rim.
“I can talk about guys miss shots, but you can’t miss layups,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said postgame. “I’m just telling you, you can’t. The game is too hard when you got a chance to dunk the ball or finish, and we can’t.”
Aidoo had the biggest issues scoring at the basket. He entered the night as Tennessee’s second best scoring option but totaled just six points on two-of-eight shooting from the field and two-of-four shooting at the foul line.
“I can’t answer that,” Barnes said on what went wrong offensively for Aidoo. “I wish I could, I really wish I could.”
In SEC play, Tennessee’s offense has been a three-headed monster with Aidoo, Dalton Knecht and Zakai Zeigler. All three entered the game averaging over 14 points per game in conference play while no one else was averaging over eight points.
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Zeigler struggled like Aidoo, scoring two points and missing all six attempts from the field. He also dished out just three assists to two turnovers.
“I thought he got out of rhythm in terms of what he normally gives us,” Barnes said of Zeigler. “He started pressing and started losing his overall displace in terms of what we need him to do on both offense and defense.”
Knecht finished with a game-high 31 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the field. But that massive performance included an incredible 13-point flurry in the game’s final three minutes as Tennessee tried to make a late game push.
But before that final push, Tennessee had 46 points through the game’s first 37 minutes and four made baskets through the first 17 minutes of the second half.
Missed free throws was another issue for Tennessee’s offense, finishing the game just 12-of-20 from the charity stripe— marking the third straight game and the fifth game this season Tennessee’s failed to make 70% of its free throws.
“We know we missed shots that we shouldn’t have,” senior guard Santiago Vescovi said. “Free throw line, same thing. We know we’re better than that. If we do those and you do the math I think it’s a completely different game. We’re not having this talk right now. We’re talking about how good we played.”
Tennessee had some mental gaffes on the defensive end and allowed more open three-pointers than they usually do. But the Vols still held South Carolina to just 63 points. Their worst issues were on the offensive end where they looked more like they did a season ago compared to how they’ve looked most of this season.
“We’re not going to beat them being that pathetic on offense as a team,” Barnes said. “We were just a really poor offensive team tonight.”
